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Spent fuel recycling and conditioning topic of U.S.-Japan meeting
Officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management discussed spent nuclear fuel recycling and conditioning with counterparts from Japan during the 13th U.S.-Japan Technical Meeting of the Civil Nuclear Energy Research and Development Working Group, held recently in Santa Fe, N.M.
R. C. Wolf
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 441-454
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Fusion Reactor Issues | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1143
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Based on the fusion reaction between the nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium magnetic confinement fusion research aims to develop an electricity producing power plant. The principal concept is to confine a plasma, consisting of these nuclei and their electrons, in a magnetic field configuration in such a way that the thermal plasma can reach temperatures and densities at which sufficient fusion reactions take place to achieve a positive energy balance. The products of the fusion reactions are helium nuclei or -particles and neutrons. The first, also bound to the magnetic field lines, are supposed to transfer their energy to the thermal plasma and thus sustain the fusion reaction. The latter, because they are not confined by the magnetic field, can leave the plasma directly and are used to breed tritium from lithium and convert the fusion energy into heat.